Former local artist returns to Tin Shop in Breckenridge

Special to the Daily
Former Summit County resident Steuart Bremner will be at the Tin Shop through Feb. 21. His public workshop will focus on playing with outdoor elements Thursday. This photo shows one done in warmer weather; it's called '41 Center Line.'

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When Steuart Bremner created his first public art piece, the Moving Rock Field outside the Frisco library, he wanted to evoke emotion out of non-human forms.

In high school, pop art influenced him, but when he moved to Colorado in the early 1970s (and earned a fine arts degree at the University of Colorado), nature became such a strong influence in his art, it actually became his medium.

From 1994 to 2007, he competed five or six times in the International Snow Sculpting Championships as part of Team Breckenridge and also carved ice in international competitions. Now he regularly goes outside and arranges snow, stones or sticks, building structures just to watch them morph or melt.

"What drives me is just the excitement of the little relationships between things - either little shapes or their juxtapositions," he said, adding that light and shadow also play into the surprise of the pieces for him.

His public workshop will revolve around nature artwork. He plans on leaving the exact projects to the group: They'll decide if they want to make individual pieces, a group piece or both, and what medium they'll use.

Bremner lived in Summit County from 1985 to 2007, and owned Breckenridge Goldsmith Gallery. He and his wife moved to Denver to experience "city life," where they bike downtown, and where "a branch of a tree becomes even more special because there's not as many of them," he said.

He's using his time at the Tin Shop to Nordic ski and see friends, as well as produce large 6x4-foot pencil drawings of sticks, rocks and other natural arrangements.

"Steuart is a minimalist who can take the line and transcend space, both in his drawings and with sculpture," said Arts District coordinator Jenn Cram. "He is thoughtful and spontaneous, and that allows for the perfect recipe for cooking up environmental installations."